Haines Junction, YT

Storyline: Westward Ho!

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(Jumping the queue; Many posts will come in a different sequence to our itinerary – D) 

It’s Day 47 (Fri, June 30) of our adventure and only 200 or so kilometres ahead we will arrive at our turn-around destination. So why choose Haines Junction and not continue on the Alaska Highway to, well, Alaska? We’ll be so close, under 400km to the U.S. border.

The main reason, and the reason we chose this destination in the first place, is that my nephew and his family live here. His daughters have grown into their teens and we’ve only met them once or twice in this whole time. It’s not like it’s a weekend drive to get here, and while we’ve not travelled the most direct route, our odometer will tell us that we’ll have covered 6,857 km by the time we arrive. We also didn’t buy Doranya in order to keep the van in our driveway. It’s always been our intent to travel across our country and enjoy the variety of people and places in our land.

Haines Junction is on the border of Kluane National Park, which together with British Columbia’s Tatshenshini-Alsek Provincial Park and the Wrangell-St Elias & Glacier Bay National Parks and Preserves comprise a single UNESCO World Heritage Site covering 98,391.21 square kilometres (37,989.06 sq mi), which is just smaller than the country of South Korea.

Mountains, glaciers, forests, and streams form habitats for innumerable varieties of flora and fauna. And it’s on “The Junction’s” doorstep. They don’t call it “Haines” to avoid confusion with Haines Alaska, a few hundred kilometres away, and one of the town’s closest neighbours.

Hiking, canoeing, kayaking, fishing, and hunting (outside the Park) are common activities in the area. Michael had a plan for every day of our short stay so we managed to do a few things. To be honest, we were a bit road-weary and Diana had some health issues that curtailed her participation in all activities.  Yet we weren’t entirely sedentary!

A nice hike into the Alsek River valley took us towards mounts Archibald and Martha Black and gave Herbie, the family dog a chance to tire himself out. Bear-repellent spray is a must in these areas as both Black and Grizzly bears are not uncommon.

Herbie, a medium-sized but strong mutt, loves to grab deadfall branches twice his length and race around proudly. He barely slowed down when he ran between me and Halia, taking her legs from under her to much amusement for all…including the victim.

There are so many edible plants and fungi (unfortunately not the season for mushrooms) that we had a great time sampling.

Michael and I spent an hour or so at the visitors’ centres. Centres, not Centre because the recently-built building houses Yukon Government, National Parks and local indigenous information centres. The cooperative effort worked very well, with each exhibit adding layers of knowledge about the area.

A Kluane Glacier flight had been booked for the day after our arrival, but there were heavy clouds and a low ceiling so the air service postponed our booking until three days later, the day before we were due to depart. In the mountains it’s normal to experience changeable weather and even the rescheduled flight was not guaranteed.

So when we took a drive into Kluane Park (most Canadian national parks carry entry fees, but not this one) to take on the views of Kluane Lake, glaciers and mountains, Michael surprised us by deciding to check in to another air service located on the lake’s shore in case they had any availability. As we arrived in the parking lot two visitors were boarding the tiny plane.

Michael went into the office and came back with the news that there was room for two of us to join the flight. Jade hadn’t experienced the glacier flight before, so she and I were the privileged two that day.

We weighed in, hustled over to the plane, the pilot briefly introduced himself, told Jade, as she was the lightest passenger, to climb over the second-row seat into the single seat behind and had me jump in to the seat behind his. Did I mention that the plane was small. We donned the indicated headsets, the pilot closed the door, hopped into his seat, closed his door and performed his pre-start routine.

A strong smell of exhaust fumes filled the small cabin as the engine roared to life (really only a meek whimper – I was thinking that a lawn mower’s engine sounded stronger).  Then both passengers and plane coughed our way down the runway, spun into the wind at the end. The pilot checked that aircraft and passengers were ready and off we went. Having never flown in a plane so small before, I was surprised at how little of the runway was needed until we rose into the air and swayed not a little alarmingly into the air. I could understand how those susceptible to motion sickness would have a problem in this bouncing ball of an exhaust-filled tin can.

Then we were over the many-shaded green/blue waters of Kluane Lake and climbing between the green forest-covered slopes of two mountains. 360° camera working: check. From there I alternated between video and still photographs of stunning beauty. This flight did not include a glacier landing, though the aircraft was ski-equipped and glacier landings are offered at times. But we didn’t need a landing to sense how small and insignificant we and our craft were.

As we flew further into the mountains it would take several minutes to cross each glacier. The ever-changing views were all so photogenic and I had to stop snapping periodically because I’d later be passing the photos over to Diana to select and cull.

All too soon our one-hour flight was coming to an end and we once again crossed the multi-hued lake, dinked around the runway, landed uneventfully, and taxied back to the office. The last step was to return to the office and pay for the flight. I thought it fitting that one didn’t have to pay if not returned safely. The operator didn’t seem too amused when I framed it that way.

On our last day we (Michael, Erin, Jade, Halia and Herbie in their truck: Diana and I in Doranya) headed down Haines Road towards the Alaska border. We pulled off the highway onto a gravel track and abandoned Doranya on a large flat space.

Erin, Halia and Herbie vacated their places in the truck’s cab and hopped into the truck’s capped bed.

Michael carefully steered us down the severely rutted track, fording a couple of streams and delivered us safely to a clearing by Kelsall Lake.

There we picnicked by a small fire that the girls prepared, wandered around the area trying to avoid Herbie’s charges with his newest tree trunk (OK, branch) and relaxed in the mild fresh air under the Yukon sun.

That evening we drove to Pine Lake where we were joined by visiting friends of Michael’s from Yellowknife in the Northwest Territories and where our hosts prepared a feast. Over a lovely fire, consummate chef Michael cooked a foil-wrapped salmon then produced a large cast iron pan into which he added ingredient after ingredient that transformed themselves into a mouth-watering paella.

Desert, for those with room, was a version of s’mores (normally fire-roasted marshmallows sandwiched between chocolate-coated graham wafers) using pringles potato chips instead of the wafers. I’ll let the reader decide if either version sounds enticing.

All too soon, Doranya was fuelled and pointed eastwards for the start of our return journey home. Many thanks to Michael, Erin, Jade, Halia,

Herbie and

Harry the cat, for making us so welcome and going out of their way to accommodate us. Hope to see you all soon.

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Diana

Since Alex summarised our time with Michael and his family so well, I only have one thing to add. For all who know me are aware that I am not a dog person and at the best of times I stay away from them. Herbie, an energetic though lovable pitbull-like mutt that probably wouldn’t be allowed in Ontario, is the only dog that I’ve been around for any length of time.

He, although my friend because of the peanut butter Michael gave me to treat him with, learned very quickly to leave me alone. He’d look at me with big “Can I come and snuggle?” eyes and I’d say “No Herbie, you go talk to Alex” and off he’d go. I grew quite fond of him and became very comfortable around him. But not enough to grant him his requested snuggles.